1. Field of the Invention
The Invention relates in general to a sound suppressor device for reducing the muzzle blast and muzzle flash that occurs during the firing of a firearm, and in particular, to such a device comprised of a type including an outer tube housing having baffles and reduced diameter coaxial spacers mounted therein.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of sound suppressor devices currently exist which use baffles and reduced diameter coaxial spacers mounted in outer tube housings, but many of these suppressor devices do not achieve high levels of noise and flash attenuation. A common occurrence with many of these devices, regardless of the baffle technology used, is that they have a detrimental effect on the accuracy of the host firearm when attached to said firearm, whereby the point of impact of the projectile fired is significantly different from the point of aim of the projectile. This detrimental effect on accuracy means that the shooter has to significantly adjust the sights on the host firearm to compensate for the detrimental effect on accuracy when shooting with the sound suppressor device attached to the host firearm. This is standard practice when using sound suppressors on high-powered rifles such as 5.56 mm and 7.62 mm rifles.
Another difficulty with many prior art sound suppressor devices is that they work well with only one caliber of ammunition. As an example, one type of sound suppressor device may work well with 9 mm caliber ammunition, but it will not work well with 7.62 mm NATO caliber ammunition. The gas pressure levels of these examples of ammunition are quite different, and this affects the performance of the sound suppressor device. This has meant that a particular baffle and spacer design has to be, in some cases, extensively modified so that good performance is achieved with different caliber firearms.
Prior art sound suppressor devices have also employed the addition of a liquid or oil or grease or fluid-like material to enhance the sound reduction. Depending upon the caliber and type of firearm used, an extra 5 to 15 dB of sound reduction is achieved through the use of fluid additives with a sound suppressor. This results in a suppressor with very high sound reduction levels, albeit dependent upon the use of the fluid additive to achieve these very high sound reduction levels. Drawbacks of the use of such materials, especially oil or greases, is that a visible gas or smoke exits from the suppressor and that to maintain the extra levels of sound reduction achieved by the addition of liquids or fluid-like materials, the user is required to place or inject the material into the suppressor once sound reduction levels decrease. Instead of using oil or grease, current practice is to use a small amount of water, and this has the effect of minimizing the visible gas exiting from the suppressor after firing. Depending upon the caliber, the suppressor may require the injection or placement of the material after as few as 5 to 10 shots have been fired through the suppressor.
It is an object of this invention to provide a firearms sound suppressor device that produces high levels of sound and flash reduction while generating little or no significant detrimental deviation of the strike of the projectile, and at the same time utilizing a baffle and coaxial spacer design that produces high levels of sound and flash reduction with different calibers of ammunition without requiring significant modification of the baffle and spacer design. It is also an object of this invention to provide a firearms sound suppressor device that is tuned to provide high levels of sound and flash reduction in which the same baffle is utilized in different caliber suppressors while only slight variations of the coaxial spacer design are required to achieve the tuning of the suppressor to the particular caliber being used. It is also an object of this invention to provide a firearms sound suppressor that produces very high levels of sound reduction without the use of fluid additives.
According to the disclosed invention, a firearms sound suppressor device comprises an outer tube housing that has at least one baffle and a coaxial spacer element and an initial coaxial spacer element mounted thereon, the baffle consisting of a flat plate with an integral rearward protruding cone with said cone having an internal conical surface having an opening on the front face of said flat plate, with said conical surface having an elongated gas aperture whereby a portion of said conical surface is cut away at the bore hole of the baffle, and the initial coaxial spacer consisting of a spacer that has at least one notch at one edge of the spacer and at least one gas port in the body of the spacer. The initial coaxial spacer element is positioned between a rear end cap and said baffle and coaxial spacer element, and the initial coaxial spacer element has at least one notch at one edge of the spacer and at least one gas port in the body of the spacer.
In a preferred embodiment, the sound suppressor utilizes an outer tube or housing, a rear end cap secured to the outer tube which is threaded internally for attaching to a firearm, a plurality of baffles and spacers positioned within the housing, and a front end cap secured to the outer tube that has an aperture for projectiles to pass through, and which serves to encapsulate the plurality of baffles and spacers within the outer tube. The placement and orientation of the reduced diameter coaxial spacer elements varies according to the caliber of the host firearm and said spacers may be either integral with the baffle to form a baffle/spacer element or may be a separate tubular element which is then positioned between baffles to form two expansion chambers.